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Reflections After One Year

 Bishop Meggan Manlove

“14 Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, ¹⁵and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.’” Mark 1:14.

Since preachers following both the Revised Common Lectionary and Narrative Lectionary were in Mark this year, it seems appropriate to revisit these all-important words near the beginning of the gospel. July 1, 2024, also marks one year of me serving as bishop of the Northwest Intermountain Synod and I have been reflecting on the many ways I have seen the reign of God coming near all across our synod.

A synod is still a hard thing to wrap arms or words around. Who are we? What do we do? What is our role? When I get together with colleagues from other denominations we often laugh about this challenge—what is a middle judicatory (the organization between the local and national)? And, as I’ve written before, we all are the synod. A few of us make up the synod staff. Our governance happens through synod assemblies and synod council meetings.

In the Northwest Intermountain Synod, I find it helpful to begin with what it means to be Lutheran in our specific part of the world and in this time. We are not the only people who are rooted in and called to proclaim God’s abundant grace, but it is central to who we are and what we offer our worshiping communities and the larger communities in which we live. Relatedly, we interpret scripture with Jesus Christ at the center. More specifically, we interpret scripture with Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection at the center. We are both freed from sin and death and freed for loving our neighbor. This neighbor love takes on many beautiful expressions across our synod. The Lutheran movement started during the Reformation, and we are reforming still. The act of interpreting scripture (with our Lutheran hermeneutic) is ongoing and so we as the ELCA have social statements and messages that speak to our time. Though Luther is credited with starting the Reformation, which led to a splintering of Christianity, Lutherans today are deeply ecumenical. We are committed to working towards Christian unity for the sake of the gospel. My belief that our Lutheran lens and voice is of value in the Intermountain West has been confirmed by visiting so many of our ministry sites over the past year and hearing so many of your stories..

Central to a synod are its unique ministries, all related to the Lutheran identity described above. When we talked about collaboration as a Treasure Valley Cluster in Southern Idaho, we often asked, “What can we do better together that we cannot do on our own?” I mentioned these five Cs during the spring synod council meeting; alliteration can be a helpful:

• Candidacy (the ELCA’s process for developing new pastors and deacons)
• Call Process (during a leadership transition)
• Campus Ministry (we financially support our three campus ministries)
• Companion Synod (our relationship with the Ulanga Kilombero Diocese of Tanzania)
• Connection (Using in-person visits, electronic newsletter, social media, Zoom series to help the synod staff and council connect with you and help you all connect with one another—connection and communication have been an emphasis this year)

And someone on the synod council who was not me, which may be surprising, asked, “What about Camps?” Yes, indeed.

• Camps (our three outdoor ministries, are essential partners in the NWIM Synod).

This past year, I have instinctively emphasized one more thing, though it starts with L:

• Leadership Development. Every time I received an email about a continuing education event, conference, seminar, webinar, gathering, I tried to recruit lay and/or rostered leaders to participate. Our outdoor ministry sites and campus ministries are essential partners in leadership development. Leadership development helps us start new ministries. Partnering with the Montana Synod’s Lay Ministry Associate program will be a key component to leadership development going forward. I have no idea what exactly the Holy Spirit is up to as the church transforms into its next iteration, but I know we will need dedicated, compassionate, and equipped lay leaders, pastors, and deacons.

Even though they are abundant, stories about people sharing the love of God in Jesus Christ through words and actions rarely make the headlines, so it can be easy to lose heart. And there is no doubt that the ELCA, the Northwest Intermountain Synod, and many local ministry sites will look and feel different in five more years, the end of this bishop-term. But the Holy Spirit is moving in our synod and the reign of God is breaking in. Of this I am sure because I have witnessed it all year long. Thank you for the honor of serving in this role.

Regional Gatherings Recap

First, thank you so much to everyone who attended our 2024 Spring Regional Gatherings! Thank you to our three wonderful host congregations: Advent in Spokane Valley, Our Savior in Twin Falls, and First Lutheran in Ellensburg. Your hospitality was fabulous.

Advent Lutheran in Spokane Valley

Congregational Group in Spokane Valley

Thanks to synod staff Cathy Steiner and Lin Carlson and our volunteer registrar Diana Abken for tending to promotion and registration. Thanks to musicians and readers and to DEM Liv Larson Andrews for coordinating worship pieces. Thanks to Assistant to the Bishop Phil Misner for helping us learn from 2021 and think through many many details. Thanks to our guests from partner organizations and agencies who took time to travel and be present with us.

First Lutheran in Ellensburg

Our Savior Lutheran in Twin Falls

And thanks finally to our speaker, Grace Pomroy, who asked to be an adopted member of our synod. We hope that Grace’s teaching, stories, biblical interpretation, and questions have been fodder for continued conversations about what it means to be the church in your time and location. 

Grace Pomroy

speaking at Our Savior in Twin Falls

Attendance:

Spokane Valley: 160

Twin Falls: 80

Ellensburg: 120

Total: 360

By comparison, we had 250 voting members and guests in the Tri-cities for Synod Assembly in 2023.

Rooted in Place Offering: $3800

These funds will be used to assist congregations asked to be an internship site for a ministry candidate who is geographically restricted, someone who, for family or personal reasons, cannot pick up their life for a year to do an internship in a whole new setting. Watch the e-newsletter in November and December as we will lift up this special fundraiser again on #GivingTuesday.

For now, thank you so much for your generosity! 

Region One Financial Services Office News

Region One of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America encompasses these six synods: Alaska, Northwest Washington, Southwestern Washington, Northwest Intermountain, Oregon, and Montana. Partnership and collaboration have been essential values for our work together. One key constant in this work has been the shared Financial Services Office (FSO).

This two-person team helps each of the Region One synods with their financial accounting and bookkeeping: Alyce Bakker – accountant, and Karen Dicken – bookkeeper.

Alyce has served as the FSO’s accountant since November of 1987. Each synod Treasurer, Administrator, and Bishop will attest to the professionalism, wisdom, and careful stewardship that Alyce brings to this work. She is an essential and highly valued ministry partner! Alyce has announced her intention to retire on April 30, 2025. While we are thrilled for Alyce and her next adventures, we will deeply miss her and her many gifts!

The six synod bishops and the Region One Governing Board will begin a hiring process early this fall – with the intention of onboarding a new leader with guidance and coaching from Alyce in early 2025. Look for more information on this role, including position description and hiring timeline, soon. In the meantime, please join us as we give thanks to God for this faithful partner!

Synod Trip to our Companion Synod,

the Ulanga Kilombero Diocese in Tanzania

Bwana Yesu Asifiwe! Praise the Lord!

Oh God, we lift up those traveling to Tanzania to be with our companions of the Ulanga Kilombero Diocese. May their travels be safe, their conversations filled with love, their encounters be fruitful, and may they always travel with grace and mercy. May you speak through them to bring encouragement to our companions. May their visit continue to nurture the relationship we have with our partners so far away. And then, bring them home safely.

Mungu Akubariki! May God Bless them!

Safari Njema! Safe Journeys!

Amen

For over 35 years, we have had a growing relationship with the people of the Ulanga Kilombero Diocese (UKD) of Tanzania. While our relationship is built on mutual support, prayer, and support of projects, it is best nurtured in face-to-face visits. Over the years, we have brought people from the UKD here for visits throughout our synod and people from here have traveled around the UKD. Through email and social media our relationship is nurtured – but nothing does more than when we are together in-person!

This July, a group of thirteen people from across our synod will travel to Tanzania to spend 2 weeks bathed in the hospitality of our siblings in Christ. Please keep this group in your prayers while they finish their preparations, during their travel, and as they return home. They will have wonderful stories to tell when they return. Consider inviting one of them (or one of the travelers from a previous trip) to come to your congregation to share about our companion synod. They will have information about how the UKD is rebuilding after the record floods earlier this year (and how our donations to them have made a difference). They will have stories about the girls at Tumaini Lutheran Secondary School who receive scholarships from our synod. They will be able to talk about Lugala Lutheran Hospital and how medical care is available to an extremely rural and far-flung area of the country. They will be able to share about the warmth and care that the people of the UKD offer. That is just the tip of the many stories they will bring back.

The group traveling is: Pr. Ethan Bergman, Janet Boyer, Ann Cooper, Cory English, Phil Gregg, Pr Emily Kuenker, Pr Liv Larson Andrews. Carla Lich, John McQuaig, Melanie McQuaig, Eric Merten, Wesley Showalter, and Mary Kay Tinker. Your prayers for their safety as they walk alongside our partners in the faith are appreciated.

Should you wish to receive more information about the UKD, please contact Deacon Heidi Cryer, chair of the Companion Synod Team, at hcryer@thelordoflife.org.

Living into a New Story

King of Glory Lutheran Church

3430 N Maple Grove Road – Boise Idaho 83704

Forum Room

Saturday August 10, 4–5:30pm

Join the Christian Life Study Group for time with author Ron Rude.

Discussion topics will flow from his recent book Amending the Christian Story: The Natural Sciences as a Window into Grounded Faith and Sustainable Living (Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2021).

At this August 10th Forum, the group will delve into new ways of looking at Christian theology and Christian living, exploring questions such as:

• Why are Judaism and Christianity such recent, infant religions? What is God up to?
• What might a non-anthropocentric version of Christian faith look like?
• How can the Natural Sciences help Christians better understand God’s story of life and even God’s story of Jesus?
• What do we do with troubling (especially violent) biblical stories?

After 17 years as Lutheran campus pastor (ELCA) at the University of Arizona-Tucson, Ron recently retired to writing, teaching, and service. ronrude2@gmail.com.

In addition, Ron will be sharing fresh preparations for an upcoming educational Retreat he is co-leading at Spirit in the Desert Retreat Center in Carefree, Arizona (January 23–26, 2025).

Book Review:

Amending the Christian Story

Retreat Information:

Living into a New Story Retreat at Spirit in the Desert

For further information email Mary Rickerd.

New Young Adults in Global Mission

ELCA Participant with Ties to Our Synod 

Espen Richardson writes:

I will be moving to Cambodia in August to begin my service.

I have recently learned that the type of work I’ll be doing could involve teaching English, building houses and farming. My primary goal will be to learn what it means to be a Lutheran in Cambodia, and also how to speak Khmer (the language of Cambodia).

https://support.elca.org/site/TR/Events/General?px=1086253&pg=personal&fr_id=1181

This link above is the page of my fundraiser. I’m asked to raise $6,000 dollars for YAGM as part of my commitment. If I reach my goal and am able to raise more, the excess will go to the fundraisers of other YAGMs across the globe.

I was a child at Holden Village from 2011-2014, and still consider Fullness of God Lutheran Church to be my home congregation. Something that is really appealing about the congregation is the emphasis of good courage, and the importance of hilarity and the role it plays in a community. I plan to bring these values with me overseas.

Thank you again for supporting me! It means a lot.

God’s Peace and Good courage,

Espen (richardsonedm@gmail.com)

And keep in your prayers current YAGM volunteer Sylvia Hwang from Grace Lutheran, Wenatchee, WA who is currently serving in Hungary.

Money Autobiographies

One of my favorite ways to get to know people in my congregations and get everyone more comfortable talking about money, budgets, and financial stewardship was to have us all write and share (parts of) our money autobiographies. At Trinity Lutheran, Nampa, we did this as a Stewardship Team and as a Church Council. We usually gave this as an assignment for the next monthly meeting. When we reconvened we had people share whatever they were comfortable sharing in groups of two or three people. 

My Money Autobiography

(adapted from an ELCA resource whose link no longer works)

Take a sheet or two of blank paper and write out your responses to the questions below. Reflect on these experiences and how specific understandings developed. You may want to use some of these questions as prompts to talk with family or friends about money.

1. What is the earliest experience with money that you remember? 
2. As a child growing up, did you feel rich or poor? Why?
3. How were your attitudes and behaviors about money shaped by your mother, father or grandparents?
4. What was your attitude toward money as a teenager? How was this influenced by peers or siblings?
5. What role did money play in your life as a young adult? How was this influenced by a spouse, friends or co-workers?
6. If applicable, how did your relationship with money change when you became a parent?
7. What is your happiest memory in connection with money?
8. What is your unhappiest memory in connection with money?
9. How does your faith influence your use of money?
10. How do you feel about your present financial status compared with times in the past?
11. In what ways are you generous with your money? In what ways are you stingy/frugal?
12. When you give to the church and other causes, are there “no strings attached”? What are your expectations of how those organizations will use the money you give?
13. What kinds of risks are you willing to take with your money?
14. What will you do with your money as you approach the end of this life?

For a longer article and more questions, follow this link:

https://faithandmoneynetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/FMN-Money-Autobiography.pdf

–Bishop Meggan Manlove

What does it mean to be Lutheran in a crucial election year?

As our faith informs our day-to-day lives, Lutherans recognize that “faith is active in love [and] love calls for justice in relationships and structures of society” (ELCA Social Statement on Church in Society). We also know the church is called to be a community that prays, deliberates, and acts together when it comes to complex social issues. In this election year, how might our Lutheran faith shape our thinking, acting, and voting on major issues? Join United Lutheran Seminary to learn and ponder timely social teachings of the ELCA and to learn tips for leading discussions in your own community. This informational flyer has more information, including how to register.

Using Family Systems Theory in Ministry

Fall 2024

This course will introduce clergy and faith leaders to the concepts of Bowen Family Systems Theory, to begin thinking about their own role and function within their family as well as their role within their faith communities.

• 6 Tuesday classes: Sept 10, 17, Oct 1, 29, Nov 12, 26 2024
• 9:00-11:00am PST
• Online via Zoom
• Fee: $300
• Facilitator: Sharon Salomons, RCC & Anglican Priest

Disability Ministry Grants

Dear friends of ELCA Disability Ministries,

Thank you for considering Disability Ministries to potentially help fund your request or initiative through a grant. Grant applicants must follow the guidelines below to be eligible to receive grant funding through Disability Ministries.

All applicants seeking funds from Disability Ministries must demonstrate how the request or initiative addresses at least one of the following goals:



• Raising up people with disabilities for leadership positions, encouraging the participation of those with disabilities in the wider church and preparing leaders for serving people with disabilities.
• Equipping our synods, congregations and members with relevant and practical information that enables them to welcome and support individuals with disabilities so that they might participate fully in the life of the congregation and that, together, all might experience being the body of Christ.
• Gathering and connecting people with disabilities and various groups in the church so that they might help us become an inclusive, supportive and whole community of faith.

Additionally, all applicants must show that they have or are actively building a relationship with people in their settings who live with disabilities.

This church wants to move beyond the attitude that “if we build it, they will come.” So, for example, don’t request funding for a ramp simply for the sake of installing one; instead, explain how your project would benefit disabled people in your setting and your ministry, and enrich your mutual relationship as disciples of Jesus Christ.

We will award grants in the range of $5,000-$10,000, for a total of $50,000. Previous applicants who were not funded may reapply.

The application window opened May 28 and will close July 31, or earlier if we have received 30 completed applications. Projects receiving grants will be announced before the end of October 2024.

To register with GrantMaker, please go to www.elca.org/grants/impact-church-ministry and follow the links and instructions. If you already have a profile with GrantMaker, log in to elca.fluxx.io/user_sessions/new to begin your application process.

Please email any questions to grants@elca.org or disability.ministry@elca.org.

God’s peace and blessings as you begin the application process!

— ELCA Disability Ministries